BELLEVILLE, ON - In stark contrast to their 7-2 loss in Ottawa on Friday night, the Belleville Bulls played hard, gritty and were certainly good enough to win at home on Saturday. Carrying the play through most of the game, the Bulls outshot the Ottawa 67's 35-18, but couldn't squeeze any points out of their valiant effort as Tyler Toffoli's goal and two assists gave his team a 3-2 win.

The Bulls looked like a new creation in the first period of George Burnett's return to the bench as pucks were getting deep, shifts were kept short, and all three lines were battling and playing with tenacity.

The newly formed line of Scott Simmonds, Joseph Cramarossa and Luke Judson quickly became a fan favourite as gritty play and a willingness to compete drew the adoration of a big Saturday night crowd at the Yardmen.

The Bulls outshot Ottawa 12-6 in the opening frame, but rookie Charlie Graham didn't go untested in the early going as he made a pair of big saves to keep the score at zeroes. Graham first came up with a big save off Tyler Graovac from point blank range after John McFarland, who was working like a dog in his first game with the 67's made a great pass to the slot. Graham came to the top of crease moments later to make a solid positional save off sophomore centreman Sean Monahan who was alone in the slot.

The Bulls put the powerplay to work in the opening minute of the second as Austen Brassard scored a goal on the man advantage for the third straight game, extending his point streak to ten contests and his goal streak to seven. Brassard whacked away at a loose puck in the goalmouth after Michael Nishi couldn't handle a low shot from a poor angle taken by Brendan Gaunce along the goal line.

The Bulls found themselves on the man advantage once again at the midway point of the second, but this time the OHL's leading goal scorer made the Bulls pay for a costly gaff as Tyler Toffoli collected his 32nd marker of the season at 9:44. 

Ottawa captain Marc Zanetti gave the 67's a 2-1 lead on the powerplay just over three minutes later as his point blast beat a screened Graham over the shoulder at 13:39.

With the Bulls suddenly behind on the scoreboard, they dug deep to match the intensity of the 67's who were being badly outshot and had goaltender Michael Nishi standing on his head.

A great display of soft hands, smart offensive instincts and great teamwork in general drew the Bulls even just before the expiration of the second frame as Michael Curtis finished off a great shift of hard work as he tucked a backhander around the sprawling Ottawa goaltender at 18:52. The goal came as a result of Brendan Gaunce's hard work down low as he outmuscled a 67's defender to get the puck to Curtis' scoring area.

The Bulls outshot Ottawa 13-6 in the second and appeared poised to break out in the third period after having carried the play late in the second.

Belleville appeared confident on the offensive side of the puck, and that confidence may have worked against them on Sean Monahan's 24th goal of the season at 6:57 as the Bulls weren't quick enough on the backcheck to pick up the late man, allowing Monahan to slam in a rebound after Tyler Toffoli took care of the laymen's work.

The Bulls still had plenty of fight in them despite trailing 3-2. Perhaps the turning point of the hockey game came at 7:32 of the third as Nishi provided a cluster of rapid fire saves off a hungry group of Bulls huddled around the goalmouth. The biggest save came by the stick of John McFarland who stole a puck off the goal line just before Austen Brassard was about to swipe it into the gaping cage.

Belleville pressed right to the final buzzer, but their night of relentless work would not come to fruition as they saw their current losing streak extended to five games in a 3-2 loss.

"The guys deserved better tonight," said Head Coach and GM George Burnett. "We wanted to challenge some guys tonight, mixed up the lines, and I think they responded pretty well. I thought the line of Cramarossa, Judson and Simmonds did a good job against their top unit. There were a lot of positives tonight."

Although Burnett was pleased with the overall effort, he acknowledged that the Bulls gave the 67's an opportunity to hang around in the game. "We had plenty of opportunities tonight, but they were the ones who executed. When we gave Toffoli chances he made the most of them."

Charlie Graham turned aside 15 of 18 shots in his first career OHL start. The goals he allowed weren't ones he could do much about as the highly skilled 67's swarmed the Bulls goal mouth and snuffed out extra opportunities. "Charlie looked good in his first outing," Burnett commented. "He's a guy we've been impressed with in his work with the Wellington Dukes and he looked composed in the crease for us."

"We've got a good week of work ahead of us," concluded Burnett. "We'll have lots of preparation to do to get ready for Brampton, Sudbury and Ottawa next week."

In one note of interest, Luke Judson surpassed Randy Rowe and Mike Renzi on the Bulls' all-time games played list. Judson's 247th OHL game ranks him 13th all-time in the team's history.

The Bulls hit the bowling lanes tomorrow afternoon as  the annual Bowling With the Bulls event kicks off at 1:30pm.

After the Bulls travel to Brampton on Thursday night, they'll return home on Saturday as the Sudbury Wolves make their first visit of the season to the Yardmen. The Wolves beat the Bulls in Sudbury last Friday in an exciting game that took overtime to settle things as the home squad came away with a 4-3 decision.

For tickets to the Bulls' next home game on Saturday, January 14th, call the Bulls Box Office at 613-966-8338.

(Photo Credit: Aaron Bell)